Sgt. Mom

Sgt. Mom
Location
San Antonio, Texas,
Birthday
February 21
Bio
Retired military, novelist and mother, sucker for animals and homebody

FEBRUARY 9, 2010 9:28AM

To See Ourselves

 

Athenshome

 

When my daughter and I lived in Greece in the early 1980s, we lived in Ano Glyphada, a neighborhood in Athens just where the flats by the airport lifted up to meet the base of the foothills that formed the spine of the Attic peninsula. I rented… Read full post »

FEBRUARY 8, 2010 10:29AM

Carp Diem

big carp, smaller carp
(Carp in the fishpond, on the grounds of McNay Art Museum, in San Antonio. It's grey and dreary here, and so wet you almost want to jump into the pond just to dry out.)

 

 

Viewers are torn: is this the most inept  and disturbing political ad ever? Or a deliberatly  inept and disturbing political ad, cunningly designed to go viral. 

But now it seems that Hitler is getting into the act, too.

 
I report - you all decide.… Read full post »

If there is a phrase which makes my socio-political antennae begin to quiver, that will be anything that begins with the words “The People’s – whatever.” The People’s Park, the People’s Republic – the People’s Whatever. I suppose at one time – aro… Read full post »

FEBRUARY 2, 2010 9:02AM

Hurray for Hollywood! (TV-style)

One of the underappreciated sidelights of having lived in Southern California was that of seeing bits and pieces of it masquerading (sometimes quite unconvincingly) as someplace else on TV. You may know, for instance, that all those times that Kirk and Spock set down on a planet where they actually… Read full post »

Anyone remember Foley-gate, the Capitol Hill sex scandal in which it turned out to contain no actual sex? When one particular representative displayed an unseemly interest in the junior help? Well, it turned out that the various junior help pretty much were

Read full post »
JANUARY 29, 2010 11:13AM

Tight Shot - Photo Essay

Stuff ... up very close. Interesting stuff, in detail.
 
Lacemaking
Making lace by hand
 
products of early Texas
Commercial items from early Texas
 
 
Opossi
Four possum kittens, on my back porch
 
orchids
JANUARY 28, 2010 9:50AM

The Year of Living Dangerously - Repost

(An essayfrom three years ago this month, out of archives on my other site, when I launched into what I really wanted  wanted to be doing with my life.)

 If the personal stuff is anything to go by, then 2006 was the year of living dangerously. It’s the year when… Read full post »

JANUARY 27, 2010 8:57AM

This I Believe….

 (In no particular order of importance...)

Women of a certain age should not wear mini-skirts. Ever.

Teabags are a scourge and invention of the Devil. Real tea is made from loose leaf tea. And the pot is rinsed out with boiling water, first.

Children should notRead full post »

JANUARY 26, 2010 11:58AM

If it's big and there's a brand on it...

 

sam's basic burger - top elevation

(Sam's basic burger, top elevation)

 

  sam's burger - side elevation

(Side elevation, Sam's basic burger - wish I had included a salt-shaker or a plastic fork, to establish the scale. Ne'er mind - drool-worthy, though.)

 

... then you must be in Texas. And very likely, you are… Read full post »

JANUARY 25, 2010 9:03AM

The End of the Beginning

Or maybe the beginning of the end – either way, the Massachusetts landslide last Tuesday has really given the political landscape a really good Richter-detectable shaking. And I have to say I have enjoyed the whole thing, immensely, and hope, oh-hope-oh-hope that

Read full post »
JANUARY 22, 2010 1:53PM

Amazon - And the Perils of PODing

It didn't seem to have made much of a ripple  in the political blogosphere, but two years ago  among the various writers' discussion groups, websites and e- newsletters, discussion of the Amazon-Booksurge imbroglio achieved a melt-down-and-drop-through-to-the earths' core degree of nuclear… Read full post »

JANUARY 21, 2010 9:01AM

The New Aristos

 (In light of the interesting and unexpected political upset in Massachusetts on Tuesday, I thought this essay of mine from a year ago had some renewed relevance - the fact that we have fallen into a bad habit of deferring to aristocrats of every flavor.)

 Funny old world that. It… Read full post »

JANUARY 19, 2010 11:47AM

I am Spartacus

You know, it amuses me no end, checking out the comment sections on various websites and blogs, especially when the commenter start to go to town, with regard to tea parties, tea partiers and the whole Tea Party thing. After the obligatory

Read full post »
JANUARY 17, 2010 5:07PM

Texas Up Close & Personal - Photo Essay

(So, last weeks' photo essay about roadside Texas was a hit - but I think it might have given readers the impression that my interests are limited to landscapes and still life-arrangments alone. No, I take pictures of people, too. Herewith a representative collection of my pictures ofTexans)

JANUARY 14, 2010 9:39AM

Earthquake - 6:01 AM

My parents lost the house that I spent school-years-to-mid-teens in, when it was condemned, by eminent domain, in order to build the 210 Freeway--- not lost, precisely, for it was pried out of Mom and Dad’s grasp by the minions of the State of California only upon offer of what they… Read full post »

Editor’s Pick
JANUARY 13, 2010 9:21AM

Roadside Texas

Working on the next book, too drained to pound out the requisite 500-800 words, where a simple picture will do. Herewith, a look at stuff by the side of the road in Texas. Strictly scenic and or/alive, which means that - Sorry, you'll have to go someplace else for the titzupRead full post »

JANUARY 12, 2010 9:17AM

The Teashop in the Village

  Art wurx at Bracken

Yes, there is a tea-shop in the village; Bracken Village that is. A tea-shop, serving fresh-brewed pots of tea, and scones and all of that, in two Victorian-style rooms and on the veranda of a quaint little house, restored lovingly, and sitting among others of like, around a/… Read full post »

JANUARY 11, 2010 8:10AM

Snow Bound

 

  donner party cover

 

I’ve been offered  an opportunity to review a new movie about the Donner Party - which seems to be one of those arty flicks, with some moderately well-known actors in the cast,  which appeared at a couple of festivals and then went straight to DVD. I can&r… Read full post »

JANUARY 10, 2010 11:11AM

Global Warmening Evidence

fountain at Artisans Alley
Fountain in the patio of Artisans' Alley, San Antonio
January 9, at about 2:00 in the afternoon
JANUARY 8, 2010 9:57AM

Vino, Veritas, and Lucky

Unaccustomed as I am to giving a good goddamn about the blatherings of movie stars and other reality-challenged morons in the entertainment industry— we pay these people inordinately large salaries to dress up and pretend to be other people for our amusement,

Read full post »
JANUARY 6, 2010 10:35AM

Out of the Llano

 (From the work in progress - tentatively called "Gone to Texas." It's shaping up as a kind of prelude to "Adelsverein" - in that it follows the life of a woman who came to Texas in the 1820s ... and also offers an explaination of how her family came to beRead full post »

JANUARY 5, 2010 10:16AM

Looking at the Past

I belong to a Yahoo discussion groups for fans of Westerns, and one of the curious things is how very passionate some of the members are about their favorite authors, and western series, some of which are well known, like Elmer Kelton and some quite obscure like Amelia Bean, who wrote… Read full post »

JANUARY 4, 2010 9:06AM

Thought-crime

I was never, even in my convinced feminist phase, much of a fan of hate crime legislation. Tacking on extra special super-duper penalties for a particular motivation in committing a crime against a person or property seemed… well, superfluous. Defacing someone’s property, beating, threat… Read full post »

DECEMBER 31, 2009 9:08AM

Another Set of Foundations

Yep, I am starting again, on another book – so here I go, into that kind of giddy and receptive stage, doing research and reading the usual tall stack of relevant books, where the details of plot and character are not quite nailed down yet, where I might at any moment… Read full post »